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Contractor pleads guilty to bribing Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office employee for more than $1 million in work

John Sens arrives at Federal Court to plead guilty to corruption

John Sens, left arrives with attorney Brian Capitelli, at Federal Court to plead guilty to corruption charges, Wednesday, March 13, 2013. The federal investigation into contracting work at the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office involved construction of the temporary jail facility and focused on John Sens, the director of purchasing for Sheriff Marilin Gusman. Sens is the brother of Municipal Court Judge Paul Sens, one of Gusman's closest friends.
(Ted Jackson, Nola.com / The Times-Picayune)

A U.S. Department of Justice release said Molenaar would submit fake bids for projects in the names of other local companies, often for a higher price than the bids from his own firms, in order to meet the state requirement of at least three competitive bids. Sens would then award the work to Molenaar.

In exchange for Sens' participation in the rigged bidding process, Molenaar gave Sens $30,000 in cash and installed a swimming pool at his home for free, work valued at $25,000.

Three of Molenaar's companies were implicated in the bribery scheme: Ricky's A/C, Inc., Landmark Mechanical Contractors, LLC and Custom Carpentry Renovations, LLC. Molenaar's companies completed more than $1 million in work for the Sheriff's Office during from 2008 to 2010.

Molenaar, now living in Las Cruces, N.M., faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 16 at 1:30 p.m.

Molenaar has previously declined to speak about his relationship with Sheriff Marlin Gusman. In an application for an hourly position to perform air-conditioning repair work for the Sheriff's Office in 2005, Molenaar listed Gusman as a friend.

An investigation by NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune revealed that Molenaar has given $27,000 in contributions to Gusman's campaign account, in his name and in the names of his firms.

Molenaar's attorney, Frank DeSalvo, said Wednesday evening that during the course of the investigation, Molenaar has not kept in contact with anyone in the Sheriff's Office.

"He moved out of town years ago to get away from this before it came to fruition. The only reason he's back now is to deal with it," DeSalvo said. "He's just glad to be moving on to the next chapter of his life."

Marc Ehrhardt, a Sheriff's Office spokesperson, has said in the past the Gusman has not been contacted by the feds and has not been informed that he is the target of any investigations.

Correction: An earlier version of this story contained a headline that incorrectly stated that Richard Molenaar pleaded guilty to giving Sheriff Marlin Gusman a bribe. The headline was corrected to read that the recipient of the bribe was an employee of his office.